July+6th+logger+notes

The morning began with an ominous feeling in the room. Something was wrong…very wrong. An errie silence filled the hall as it was announced that yes, it was today. The day that the research papers were due. Men cried, women shrieked, the earth stood still. This was the horrible day that every being in the writing institute had dreaded. Shirleen read the logger notes from Thursday between sobs and helpless looks. She had written the notes to sound as though it had taken place at a state fair. Some place far better than the land in which the writers all dwelled today. Jerri even tried to lighten the mood with a story about a dead chicken. The students laughed nervously as they were waiting for their goose (chicken) to be cooked. Becky tried her best to lighten the mood with her teacher demonstration. The name monsters were a way to bring out the inner beast in us all. We drew eyes, mouths and gruesome creatures. Some were scaly, some were hairy, and some only had one eye for which to stare at little children. Others lived in closets where they hid the inhabitants’ most prized possessions. They communicated with grunts and groans. Sam read her article summary…where the monsters drooled. Rachel returned to a hell like place with her writing prompt about snakes lurking in rafters watching an innocent writer put her thoughts on paper. Slithering, threatening to fall on the writer. The prompt “Everybody is a moon and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody”…this brought thoughts of good and evil followed by thoughts of depression and dark places. The mood fell even darker as Jerri asked how educators were keep expectations high while being forced to teach to the test. There seemed to be no answers to be had, only hopeless thoughts and frustrations. It was like there was an evil in the room that no one could shake. This evil had a name..No Child Left Behind or was it standardized testing??? No one knew for sure. The Anchor lightened the mood for lunch; it was like they had escaped the evil from the room in the mall as Essdack. It took leaving for the creature to be shaken and left to dwell in its den, alone. The story about Sarhara and her road to becoming a writer made the fellows laugh. Each one of them understanding that the long and winding road to education is filled with mistakes and pitfalls. That it affects not only the teachers but the students as well. Then they were left to their own devices to roam the streets of Hutchinson, looking for inspiration. God must have finally allowed a small ray of sunshine to land for a moments time as the fellows were dismissed early, to go home, lick their wounds and start a weekend filled with anxious anticipation for their last true day of the Writers Institute to begin and yet end at the same time on Monday…their last full day together.